Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

Prepaid tuition program returns

The Mississippi Prepaid Affordable College Tuition program will reopen this fall, but it could come with increased costs for new participants.

The nine-member Mississippi College Savings Board voted Monday to reopen the program, with a target date of this fall.

The decision came after board members had indicated in late January that they would leave the decision up to the state Legislature.

MPACT has been closed for 18 months to new participants because it was financially underwater and investments had tanked. There is currently a roughly $82 million deficit in the program.

But Board member Len Blanton made a motion Monday to reopen the program, saying it has been studied enough. Other board members agreed.

Blanton said: “We believe we have some options available to make the program cost neutral.”

No specific date was set. State Treasurer Lynn Fitch said staff will work to come up with the best time to reopen it.

Fitch and other College Savings Board members said higher prices for MPACT must be considered.

“Certainly we have to look at pricing of the contracts and making sure they are done correctly,” Fitch said.

But Fitch said other options will be on the table, including streamlining investments.

Fitch has suggested the state use interest from unclaimed property administered through her office to wipe out the deficit in the program.

The Michigan-based actuary firm Gabriel Roeder Smith & Co., hired to audit and make recommendations, has said if the program closes it would cost $143 million for the state to honor tuition for the roughly 22,000 children enrolled in it.

Fitch said Monday that she thinks the right decision was made to shut down the program 18 months ago.

“I would do it over again,” Fitch said.

College Savings Board member Scott Carmichael said with new money possibly coming in from new participants, the future deficit won’t be as great, but the Legislature will have to address the current deficit.

“We’re not a funding source,” Carmichael said. “The Legislature will have to address the deficit now or at some future time.”